As I look across my bedroom at the tall bookcase that extends floor to ceiling, I stare into my stored past. So many books, some standing two deep on shelves, all remind me of my stored experience. Those pages tell part of the tale of all that has been stored in me.
A couple of books of chant are vestiges of the many songs I sang in those books. There are so many adventures and explorations. There are some fantasies, but mostly discoveries made by my heart and mind. Beginnings and endings are all there, as they remain in me. False starts that were never ended are there. So are also the repeated reads, and notes, and plunges into unfamiliar waters. All are reminders of what I carry stored in me.
Today I am aware of so many stored experiences, and the books only bring a reflection on a small part stored in me. Like the ancient maple in my garden, I have many rings that store experience of what seems the past, but is actually still present and part of me. So much has been stored in my roots and nourish me every day.
Even as I reach out to friends that surround me, I realize I do so with many stored experience within me of others and they are still present. I hold inside of me all those I have experienced and known. I have stored all those who have shaped me and still are part of my breath and my sighs. I hold a storehouse of encounters and intimacies on my yellowed pages and in my anchoring roots.
I have albums of photos that remind me of some days of my past, especially the stored memories of experiences with my two kids and Brenda. There are also other photos and written thoughts that remind me of the many people who have had intimate impacts on me and are stored within me. Their presence is more intense and intimate than the books standing vigil on the shelves in my room.
So much is stored inside of me, some easily accessible by memory and some not. Still, it is all there. What appears to be past experience is part of every everything that unfolds. What is stored has not ended. It seems to go on, day by day, moment by moment.